Fatima Al Zadjaliya -
IN our minds there is something akin to a book on which we write down our dreams and record what transpires during the course of life. It’s a book that doesn’t need to be printed on papers; it is rather a chronicle of events that automatically stuck in our minds. Friends and relatives often have in their minds records that are more or less similar to ours.
Childhood memories are always easy to recall, for many of us the events of childhood never fade away, they keep popping up every now and again through the rest of our lives. We reminisce about how we used to play and laugh innocently without having any worries of the troubles happening around us. We remember the hearty laughters when we played with our peers. Who cannot forget the happiness we felt when our parents bought us toys and Eid gifts, it felt as though we possessed invaluable treasures. Our greatest moments were when we got together and shared toys with each other with our giggle echoing through the streets.
And then life turned a bit harder when we had to go to school. The first day at school threw fear on our little hearts and worries of what was looming ahead for us. The school was a wider world with lots of uncertainties and mixed feelings.
Some were crying in fear for they had to be deprived of the home warmth and the parents’ affections until they settled down and got used to the strict life of the school. It was the beginning of a long journey that shaped our future and decided our fate.
No doubt everyone’s book is teeming with events, crises, times of happiness and others of sorrow. Life never takes one straight path, we have to swing right and left and to taste both the sweet and the bitter of life. There was an affluent man who had constant fear of losing his wealth. When a crisis struck the economy, the man asked his doctors to keep him unconscious until the woes are over. They did what he ordered them. But when he was resuscitated all his money had already gone, his sons took advantage of the situation and took hold of his whole possessions.
Everyone’s fate is decided beforehand and it is no use trying to escape what is written for us in the book of heaven no matter how hard we struggle. The events of life are inescapable whether we like it or not, all we have to do is accept the reality and do our best to adapt ourselves to changing conditions because it is not in our power to change the course of events or alter the ways of God.
